(WOMENSENEWS)
--Harvard University ignited
a firestorm of protest last
spring when its undergraduate
school scrapped its long-standing
policy of
investigating all rape charges
brought by one student against
another. Instead it
imposed a requirement that
the victim provide "sufficient
corroborating evidence"
before a probe could be launched.

In a vote Tuesday,
May 20, a special faculty
committee appointed to review
the
policy reversed course and
agreed to replace "corroborating
evidence" with "as
much information as possible."
The members also approved
recommendations
from the student-faculty Committee
to Address Sexual Assault
at Harvard for a
new office for sexual assault
prevention and the expansion
of rape awareness
education.

Harvard College
director of communications
Robert Mitchell could not
be
reached for comment on Tuesday's
vote. His office stressed,
however, that the
new "language is not
describing any change to the
Advisory Board's procedures
that were adopted last year.
And as was true according
to the Ad Board
procedures last year, and
as continues to be true now,
every complaint is heard."

Sarah B. Levit-Shore,
a student member of the sexual-assault
committee, called
the vote "a significant
step forward." She added,
however, that the real test
would
be next year's report on how
Harvard implements the committee's
recommendations.

A year ago,
the student activist group
the Coalition against Sexual
Violence
rejected Harvard's new rule
as overly burdensome, arguing
that sexual assaults
rarely have such evidence.
They demanded the policy be
reworded and that all
sex assault charges be investigated.
Alisha Johnson, a member of
that activist
group, says she now hopes
the Ivy League's latest sexual-assault
policy will help
rape victims on other campuses.
"People pay attention
to what Harvard does, so
if this helps other schools
address this issue adequately
then we're happy about
that."

Whether Harvard's
decision will push others
to take the same approach
is a
matter of some doubt, however.

Campus Rape
Statistics Unreliable

Figures on
sexual assaults against college
women have historically been
sketchy.
Part of the problem is simply
underreporting, says Diane
Clark, a professor at
Gallaudet University in Washington,
D.C. She says that victims
are confused
about what constitutes rape
and that universities often
fail to inform them on the
issue.

"I'm not
convinced that many college
students really understand
when their rights
have been violated and that
they don't feel they're at
least somewhat to blame,"
says Clark. She is conducting
a study on how male and female
students perceive
sexual assault.

In addition,
little effort has been made
to monitor the crime nationally.
It wasn't
until 1990 that the Jeanne
Clery Disclosure of Campus
Security Policy and
Campus Crime Statistics Act
was passed, named after a
student at Lehigh
University in Bethlehem, Pa.,
who was raped and murdered
in her dorm in 1986.
The law requires any schools
receiving federal aid to notify
victims of their right to
report their assaults to law-enforcement
authorities. The schools must
also issue
annual reports on crimes committed
on their campuses.

A two-year
study published last year
by the Education Development
Center, Inc.
of Newton, Mass., found that
over 60 percent of the schools
fail to comply with
the act. And the 2000 "National
Baseline Study on Campus Sexual
Assault:
Adjudicating Sexual Assault
Cases" by the nonprofit
Association for Student
Judicial Affairs, a professional
group, based in College Station,
Texas, concluded
that "the exact percentage
of incidents of rape or attempted
rape which occur on
a college campus can't be
determined." Nonetheless,
"The Sexual Victimization
of
College Women," sponsored
by the U.S. Department of
Justice in 2000, did
estimate that one in four
women experienced rape or
attempted rape during their
college career.

Tactics
to Minimize Rape Reporting
on the Rise

Catherine Bath,
program director for Security
On Campus, Inc. says that
data
collected by her King of Prussia,
Pennsylvania-based nonprofit
group indicated
the number of campus rapes
has remained relatively steady
over the decade.
What she does see, however,
is an alarming increase in
the tactics schools use to
minimize reporting.

"We've
seen victims outright discouraged
from reporting rape because
they've
been told they could be found
guilty of drinking or having
sex in the dorm," says
Bath. She adds that campus
rape victims are "afraid
of even going through the
campus judicial system, for
fear of being sanctioned."

Two such cases
have been in the headlines
recently. Last year, Boston
University
student Meghann Horner reported
a sexual assault and told
campus authorities
she had smoked marijuana with
her assailant. The university
cleared the alleged
rapist but charged Horner
with illegal drug use. Those
charges, later overturned,
came on the heels of protests
over the treatment of another
Boston University
rape victim. In that case,
Kristin Roslonski was suspended
for drinking on campus
after she had reported being
raped by a fellow student.
Roslonski has filed a $1.4
million civil suit against
Boston University.

Wendy Murphy,
a Boston attorney who has
worked with campus rape victims
for
10 years, cites other strategies
schools use to discourage
rape reporting. These
include: insisting victims
turn over all information
on psychological counseling
or
medical exams prior to the
assault and waiving any confidentiality
rights to those
files; instituting strict
statutes of limitations--most
college victims will not
immediately report the assault;
erroneously warning victims
that if they get a rape
evidence kit done they will
have to press charges even
if they later change their
minds; and pressuring victims
to accept a campus mediation
process in lieu of
outside judicial recourse.

Murphy says
that last hurdle--of pushing
campus mediation--is the most
egregious. "What victims
need most in these cases is
access to outside counseling
and representation,"
she says.

In another
recent case, Georgetown University
student Kate Dieringer reported
she was drugged and raped
in 2001, her first year, by
a student who was acting
as her student-orientation
advisor. The school held a
hearing on the charges, but
demanded Dieringer sign a
confidentiality agreement
before she could be informed
of the outcome--and know whether
her alleged assailant would
be allowed to
return to campus.

Georgetown's
Office of Student Conduct
not only let the accused rapist
off, but
the office's director labeled
Dieringer "a woman scorned."
Outraged that the
confidentiality agreement
kept her from pursuing the
charges elsewhere, Dieringer
filed a complaint with the
U.S. Department of Education
charging that the
agreement violated the Clery
Act, which requires campuses
to inform victims of
their right to outside counsel.
Dieringer's case is still
pending.